What kind of cable does my external hard drive use?

USB
USB is the most common connection type for external devices, whether external hard drive, thumb drives, flash drives, printers, cameras, all kinds of other devices.

What are hard drive cables called?

Background. There are three main types of hard drive data cables: IDE/PATA, SATA and SCSI. IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives, also known as PATA (Parallel AT Attachment) drives, are commonly found in personal computers.

Does external hard drive come with cable?

Drives don’t typically come with any cables. You need both a SATA power and SATA data cable. You will have to check your power supply if you have a free SATA connection – you should.

What is a USB 3.0 cable?

USB 3.0 is the latest revision of the Universal Serial Bus standard released in 2008. This new standard offers increased transfer rates up to 4.8Gbps, increased maximum bus power, improved power management, and new connectors and cables that facilitate the higher transfer speeds and additional power.

How many cables does a HDD need?

Any desktop computer hard drive has two connectors, one for power cable and other for data cable. Power cable connects a hard drive PCB (Printed Circuit Board) with computer’s power supply. Data cable connects the hard drive with a computer’s motherboard. SATA connectors (Serial ATA or S-ATA interface).

What is a SATA cable?

What is a SATA Cable? SATA (also referred to as Serial ATA) stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, an industry-standard bus interface for connecting a computer’s host bus adapter to storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDD), optical drives and solid-state drives (SSD).

What are the two cables that connect to a hard drive?

What is the difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 cables?

USB 3.0 cables facilitate the faster transfer rates of 4.8Gbps as well as the additional power transfer of 900 mA by doubling the amount of wires within the cable from 4 in the 2.0 cables to 8 in the 3.0 cables. USB 2.0 cables transfer data at 480 Mbps and provide power up to 500 mA.

Are SATA cables universal?

Yep. They’re interchangeable. All SATA is backward (and forward) compatible.